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BUSINESS LAW 2 CHAPTER ONE

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Legal Abortion Mortality Rates ... 27

Incidence Of Pelvic Infection Following Legal Abortion

... 28

Incidence Of Major Hemorrhage Following Legal Abor-

tion ... 30

Incidence Of Uterine Perforation As A Result Of Legal

Abortion ... 31

Incidence of Menstrual Disturbance Following Legal

Abortion ... 32

*iii Techniques of induced abortion ... 36

Permissive abortion laws do not decrease the criminal

abortion rate ... 42

Table: Effect of criminal abortion rate ... 42

Incest and rape cause few pregnancies ... 46

Abortion on demand does not fulfill the requirements

for a good law dealing with a complex social, biologic-

al, economic, and moral issue ... 48

A high abortion rate correlates with a high suicide rate

... 50

Permissive abortion laws might increase venereal dis-

ease damage ... 51

The abortionists have interpreted United States v.

Vuitch, 91 S.Ct. 1294, 28 L.Ed.2d 601 (1971), as per-

mitting abortion on demand ... 52

The abortionists interpret abortion for mental health

reasons to mean abortion on demand ... 52

Conclusion ... 54

*iv TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CITED

Cases

Ballard v. Anderson, 4 Cal.3d 873, 484 P.2d 1345, 95

Cal.Rptr. 1 (1971) ... 8

United States v. Vuitch, 91 S.Ct. 1294, 28 L.Ed.2d 601

(1971) ... 52, 53

Statutes and Related Material

Declaration of Independence ... 5

United States Constitution

Amend. IX ... 4

Amend. X ... 4

Amend. XIV ... 5

Congressional Record, Jan. 29, 1971 ... 48, 49

California Health & Safety Code 25954 ... 53

HB 3184, Florida (Oct. 1969) ... 9

SB 1421-70, Hawaii (Feb. 4, 1970) ... 9

Declaration of the Rights Of A Child, General As-

sembly of the United Nations, Nov. 20, 1959 ... 5, 6

Legal Textbooks

Perkins, Criminal Law, 2d Ed., 1969, p. 31 ... 11

Prosser on Torts, 3rd Ed., 1964, Chapter 22 ... 4, 6

*v Medical Reports, Bulletins, Magazines, etc.

American Medical News, March 29, 1971, p. 6 ... 52

California Medicine, Sept. 1970, pp.67, 68 ... 9, 10, 49

KOYA, MURAMATSU, Bulletin of the Institute of

Public Health (Japan) IV, No. 1-2, Sept. 1954 ... 19

New England Journal of Medicine, July 14, 1969 ... 41

Our Role In The Generation, Modification And Ter-mination Of Life, Archives of Internal Medicine, 1969

... 11

Japan's 22 Year Experience With A Liberal Abortion

Law, Dr. Yokichi Hayasaka, et al., pp. 4, 5, 6 ... 14,

15, 16

1970 WL 122834 (U.S.) Page 2

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Induced Abortion: A Documented Report, by T. W.

Hilgers, M.D., P. N. Shearin, M.D. (Presented to Min-

nesota State Legislature) Jan. 1971 ... 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,

25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,

40, 41, 42, 43

Statistical Reference Books

Vital Statistics of the U.S., 1967, Vol. II, Mortality,

Part A, pp. 1-7 ... 51

United Nations Demographic Yearbooks 1965-1969 ...

50

Guinness Book of Records ... 12

*vi Reference Books

Love and Curing The Neurotic, Arlington House,

1971 ... 20

Rice, The Vanishing Right To Live, p. 39 ... 42

Shaw, Abortion on Trial, p. 144 ... 42

Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Biological Timebomb,

pp. 37, 38, 207 ... 12

Handbook on Abortion, Dr. & Mrs. J. C. Willke, Hiltz

Publishing Co., 1971 ... 13, 17, 20, 27, 43, 44, 45, 46,47, 48

Magazines

Alive In An Artificial Womb, Life, August 28, 1964

... 12

Control of Population, Life, Feb. 20, 1970 ... 11

Abortion and The Law, Newsweek, April 13, 1970 ...

11

Robert A. Harper, OB-GYN News, Nov. 1, 1969 ... 11

The Tragedy of The Commons, Science, December

13, 1969 ... 11

Newspaper Articles

Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1970 ... 41

Life In America, May 1971 ... 52

*vii Los Angeles Times, TV magazine, Nov. 18, 1970,p. 17 ... 53

Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1971, Part 4, p. 4 ... 51

Los Angeles Times, Sunday, June 20, 1971, p. A3 ... 13

Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1971, Part IV, p. 23 ... 16,

17

Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1971, Part 4, p. 4 ... 51

New York Times, May 19, 1971, p. 1 ... 8

*1 MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE A BRIEF AS

AMICUS CURIAE

Robert L. Sassone hereby respectfully moves for leave

to file a brief amicus curiae in this case. The consent of

the attorneys for the parties has been obtained.

The interest of Robert L. Sassone in this case arises

from the fact that he is the President of LIFE (League

for Infants, Fetuses, and the Elderly, an organization of

over a thousand individuals, including many clergymen,

doctors and attorneys). The members of LIFE fear thatdeclaring abortion control laws unconstitutional may

lead to lessened respect for the value of human life.

Certain of the individual members of LIFE have ex-

amined certain of the recent lower court decisions and

briefs relating to the constitutionality of abortion con-

trol laws. These *2 examinations have indicated that

certain statistical, medical and sociological arguments

by defendants have not been answered, or that the an-

swers have omitted important data. In addition, argu-

ments in favor of the right to live of the unborn have

omitted important data. The rights of the unborn are rel-evant in determining the constitutionality of the abor-

tion control law in question, because abortion involves a

balancing of rights, not a mere consideration of only the

rights of the mother.

The present brief sets forth data in short sections which

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FN2. Ibidp. 118.

When we apply the well-tested common law policy re-

lating to traps to abortion, we find that the case for the

preservation of life is stronger in many ways in the case

of abortion, where the baby is invited in by actions by

the woman.

In the case of the traps, the person whose right to pri-

vacy is being invaded is entirely powerless to prevent

the invasion in many cases, since the measures neces-

sary to make property thief-proof cost more than most

persons can afford. In the case of abortion, the mother

not only has the power to prevent the pregnancy, she

had to actively participate in a sexual act before the

conception could *7 occur. In addition, after participat-

ing, she had to refrain from taking steps, such as a

morning-after pill or D & C, to prevent implantation. In

the case of traps, the protected invader of privacy may

well be guilty of a criminal act, yet he still is protected.

In the case of abortion, the victim is personally entirely

innocent, regardless of the acts of his parents.

Burden And Degree Of Proof.

Whenever a human being is faced with the legal loss of

his life, the burden of proof that that person should lose

his life lies with those who are attempting to take his

life, and the burden of proof is not a mere preponder-

ance of the evidence. The Court should not do less in

the case of innocent unborn humans than it does for

more mature humans who are accused of serious crimes.

Before defining the law to permit the killing of millions

of unborn children, the Court should require the pro-

abortionists to prove their case beyond a reasonable

doubt.

The Scope Of The Right To Privacy In The Area Of

Abortion Should Be Determined In Part By Comparing

The Conflicting Rights And By Determing The Results

Likely To Follow If Various Alternatives Are Adopted.

The issue of abortion is more than a question of the

freedom of a woman to control the reproduction func-

tions of her body. It is also a question of those circum-

stances under which a human being may be permitted to

take the *8 life of another. Granting an absolute right to

aborton because of the right to privacy will cause abor-

tion on demand to exist, the advantages and disadvant-

ages of abortion on demand may be analyzed in part by

analyzing the experience of the large nations which

have had sufficiently large volume of abortions over a

sufficiently long period of time under carefully mon-

itored conditions.

Loosening Abortion Laws May Have Significant Un-

foreseen Future Effects.

In Ballard v. Anderson, 4 Cal.3d 873, 484 P.2d 1345, 95

Cal.Rptr. 1 (1971), the California Supreme Court ruled

that the 1967 California Abortion Law permits a minor

of any age to get an abortion without parental know-

ledge or consent, a result not mentioned during debate

in 1967. A New York court has held that New York

cannot limit medicaid for abortions to abortions for

medical reasons.[FN3]

Neither of these events were

foreseen or discussed at the time the respective abortion

laws were being discussed. Declaring abortion laws un-

constitutional may cause unforeseen, possibly un-

wanted, future events. Will a 12 or 13 year old girl then

have the right to become pregnant and to get an abortion

without parental knowledge and consent, such as

happened in California? If the minor is permitted to get

an abortion, does not her right to privacy give her aright to be sterilized without parental knowledge or con-

sent? Will not more unborn Americans be executed in a

relatively few years than the number of Jews by the

Nazis? Will not a woman, *9 have a right to deliber-

ately conceive a child, then kill that child by means of

abortion, for purposes such as toxicity tests? It is prob-

able that the unforeseen results from giving a woman an

absolute right to privacy in the area of abortion will be

far more imaginative than the few possibilities sugges-

ted herein. If the Court permits abortion for no reason,

where will it logically be able to draw a line when the

same anti-life arguments are extended?

FN3. New York Times, May 19, 1971, page 1.

Abortion Is Only The Opening Wedge Of A Broad

Based Attack On The Right To Live.

The scope and severity of the attacks on the right to live

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are such that if the right to live is destroyed in a particu-

lar small area, it may be impossible to prevent the right

to live from being destroyed in other areas. HB 3184,

prefiled October, 1969, by Representative Sackett in

Florida, and introduced annually since, would permit

three doctors and one judge to order the execution of

persons they felt deserving of execution. SB 1421-70,

introduced by Nadao Yoshinaga, February 4, 1970, in

Hawaii, the week after Hawaii passed its aborton-

on-demand law, provides that every woman giving birth

to her second child must be sterilized regardless of her

opinions or belief or those of her doctor. These two

bills, if passed, would make legal in America a large

percentage of the actions of the Nazis which were

labeled atrocities in the 1940's. There is sufficient pres-

sure, however, to go far beyond these two bills in Amer-ica today. The California Medical Association has

stated in an an editorial: The traditional western ethic

has always placed great emphasis on the intrinsic worth

and equal value of every human life *10 regardless of

its stage or condition .... This traditional ethic is still

clearly dominant, but there is much to suggest that it is

being eroded at its core and may eventually even be

abandoned .... It will become necessary and acceptable

to place relative rather than absolute values on such

things as human lives .... The process of eroding the old

ethic and substituting the new has already begun. It may

be seen most clearly in changing attitudes toward hu-

man abortion. In defiance of the long held Western ethic

of intrinsic and equal value for every human life regard-

less of its stage, condition or status, abortion is becom-

ing accepted by society as moral, right and even neces-

sary .... Since the old ethic has not yet been fully dis-

placed it has been necessary to separate the idea of

abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be

socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious avoid-

ance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows,

that human life begins at conception and is continuous

whether intra- or extra-uterine until death. The veryconsiderable semantic gymnastics which are required to

rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life

would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth un-

der socially impeccable auspices. It is suggested that

this schizophrenic sort of subterfuge is necessary be-

cause while a new ethic is being accepted the old one

has not yet been rejected.... Medicine's role with respect

to changing attitudes toward abortion may well be a

prototype of what is to occur .... One may anticipate fur-

ther development of these roles as the problems of birth

control and birth selection are extended inevitably to

death selection and death control whether by the indi-

vidual or by society.[FN4]

FN4. California Medicine, September 1970, pp.

67, 68.

*11 Whether it be best sellers such as Population

Bomb, which likens human beings to a cancer which

must be removed-even though the operation will require

many cruel and apparent heartless decisions, TV talk

shows, magazine articles[FN5]

, or talks at schools, etc.,

general principles are being proposed for America today

which are broad enough to encompass most of the worst

acts of the Nazis. It is very possible that today in Amer-

ica the right to live may be whittled away by a series of

small steps, each justified for varying reasons, so that

the sum result of all those steps will be undesirable. The

first and most difficult step is to establish in the law, as

the Court is being asked to do in this case, that a certain

class of human beings are subhumans whose lives may

be taken with no more justification than needed to step

on an ant. Once that first large step is taken, and the

right to privacy becomes a license to kill, the sub-sequent small steps may come easily, rapidly and inevit-

ably.

FN5. Control Of Population, Life, Feb. 20,

1970; The Tragedy Of The Commons, Sci-

ence, Dec. 13, 1968; Our Role In The Genera-

tion, Modification And Termination Of Life,

Archives of internal Medicine, 1969; Abortion

And The Law, Newsweek, Apr. 13, 1970;

Robert A. Harper in OB-GYN News, Nov. 1,

1969, and many others.

The Protection Of The Right To Life Should Be BasedOn Current Medical Knowledge (Which Indicates That

A 10-Ounce Child Can Survive), Not Medical Know-

ledge Hundreds Of Years Old.

All would agree that shooting or otherwise damaging a

corpse is not homicide.[FN6]

An apparently drowned

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child would have been pronounced dead in years past,

and a court *12 in those days would exonerate from

homicide one who cut off the child's head a moment

after the heart stopped. Would this be just today, when

we have modified the definition of a corpse because of

advances in techniques for life revival, restoration and

resuscitation, such as artificial respiration, open heart

massage, transfusions, transplants, and a variety of life-

restoring stimulants, drugs and new surgical methods.

FN6. Perkins, Criminal Law, 2d Ed. 1969, p.

31.

The quickening barrier for fetus survival was long

ago broken. In the 1930's, a ten-ounce premature infant

survived its early birth to grow to become a normal size

adult.[FN7] This Court should not disregard the medi-

cine of the 1930's and hold that a woman's right to pri-

vacy gives her a license to kill her unquickened unborn

child because that child would have been too small to

have survived in 1600. Nor should this Court rule that a

nine-ounce child can be killed by its mother, because

the nine-ounce barrier for premature infants is no

more sacred than the four-minute mile barrier was for

runners.

FN7. Guinness Book of Records.

Experiments going back into the early 1960's[FN8]

have indicated that artificial wombs for unborn humans

are only a matter of time. It is expected that before the

present decade ends,[FN9]

that is, sometime before

1980, any unborn human being, perhaps even those

weighing less than one ounce, old enough to have de-

veloped a placenta, may be removed from its mother,

placed in an artificial liquid environment, fed food and

oxygen from a heart-lung *13 machine through its pla-

centa, and enabled to develop until it can breathe and

eat like a normal newborn child. This year, in Sydney,

Australia, Richard Brodrick, a child only six incheslong, nearly survived.

[FN10]In a matter of a few short

years, any woman wishing to terminate an early preg-

nancy will be able to terminate the pregnancy without

the death of the child. The doctor will be able to care-

fully remove the placenta and child and give the child a

chance to live, if the law protects the child.

FN8. Alive In An Artificial Womb, an article

in Life Magazine, August 28, 1964.

FN9. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Biological

Timebomb, pp. 37, 38, 207.

FN10. Los Angeles Times, Sunday, June 20,

1971, p. A3.

Responsible physicians would hope not to abort a

mother whose baby would be over one pound. But - one

of our colleagues recently witnessed a four pound baby

killed by the salt method and delivered stillborn. Anoth-

er practice is that of some so-called physicians in New

York City and elsewhere of injecting salt solution and

immediately sending the mother home. Within two

weeks in Cincinnati two babies weighing three-

and-a-fourth and three-andthree-fourths pounds were

delivered dead from mothers who had had this proced-

ure.[FN11]

FN11. Handbook On Abortion, Dr. & Mrs. J.

C. Willke, Hiltz Publishing Co., 1971, p. 29.

Unless it sustains strong abortion laws, the Court will,

in effect, make a new legal definition-the subhuman

who can be killed with impunity. It will then be much

easier to increase the scope and variety of those inno-

cents falling within the subhuman class than it was to

establish the first class of innocent, legal subhumans.

*14 Abortion Has Caused Emotional Disturbance In

Non-Christian Japan Among About 80% Of Aborton

Patients.[FN12]

FN12. Japan's 22 Year Experience With A

Liberal Abortion Law, Dr. Yokichi Hayasaka,

el al., p. 4.

The average of six surveys in Japan indicates that most

women with abortion experience do not approve of itwithout reserve. The 1963 survey by. the Aichi Com-

mittee on the Eugenic Protection Law indicates that

73.1% of the women who experienced abortion felt

anguish about what they did. In the 1964 survey of Dr.

Kaseki, 59% responded that they felt abortion was

something very evil and only 8% said they don't think

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it should be called something bad. In the Gamagori City

survey, 65% had some reason to be sorry. In the 1968

survey of the Nagoya City area, 67% of the women re-

sponded that they felt the fetus is an individual human

being from the beginning, not a part of the mother. 42%

of the women in the survey responded that abortion is

not good. In addition another 57% that it is not good but

it couldn't be helped; and only 1 % didn't know whether

to call it bad or good. In the 1969 survey by the Prime

Minister's Office, 88% answered that abortion is bad, or

it is not good but cannot be helped.

In the 1965 Mainichi survey, only 18% responded that

they did not feel anything in particular when they ex-

perienced abortion for the first time; 35.3% felt sorry

about the fetus'; 28.1% felt they did something wrong;4.3% worried about fecundity impairments; 6.5% had

other answers, and 7.9% did not answer. Ibid.

*15 In Japan, The Physical Abnormality Rate Following

Abortion Has Been About 29%.

All public opinion surveys taken indicate that several

million women in Japan believe that their health has

been harmed by abortion; that is, legal abortion. The

surveys cover a total of 16-17 million married women,

not counting the unmarried, among whom many have

also experienced abortion. If roughly half of them haveexperienced at least one abortion (which is a conservat-

ive estimate); and if 30% of them have adverse health

effects as a result, the number of women affected is

already above 2.5 million; there are more if we also

count the unmarried, and those who have moved into

the higher age categories.

This appears to be the picture which emerges from the

public opinion surveys. In the 1959 Mainichi survey,

28.4% of those who had abortion reported some kind

of bad effect; in the 1963 Aichi survey, 13% indicated

damage from the operation; in the 1964 Welfare Min-istry survey, 24.1% indicated that they were physically

unwell since the operation; in the 1965 Mainichi survey,

18.5% indicated (after only one abortion) that they were

physically unwell after the operation; in the 1968

Nagoya survey by Women's Associations, 59% indic-

ated that they were severely troubled with adverse after-

effects, or in less good health; and in the 1969 survey of

the Office of the Prime Minister, 31% indicated that

some kind of physical abnormality came about as a res-

ult of abortion; this averages to 29% in the six surveys;

not counting those who did not reply to this question.

In the 1965 Mainichi survey, the percentage of com-

plaints is seen to rise with the number of abortions ex-

perienced:*16 18.5% indicate that they were physically

unwell after one operation; 22.7% after two; 40.4%

after three; 51.7% after four operations....

The 1969 survey of the Office of the Prime Minister

indicates the following list of complaints: 9.17% steril-

ity (after 3 years); 14.8% habitual spontaneous abortion;

3.9% extra-uterine pregnancies; 17.4% menstrual irreg-

ularities; 20% abdominal pains; 19.7% dizziness; 27.2%

headache; 3.5% frigidity; 13.5% exhaustion; 3.6% neur-

osis.

Even though the operating physician performs

everything normally the woman experiences a sudden

change from the pregnant state to the non-pregnant

state. Her body has been functioning at high capacity to

provide nourishment for the developing fetus and to dis-

pose of wastes. When the fetus is wrenched out of her

body, the reason for this prodigious physical activity is

suddenly removed. Dr. Y. Moriguchi compares it toslamming emergency brakes on a train which is going at

full speed (Katorikku Shingaku, Jochi University, II, II,

4, pp. 353362). As a result the syndrome of the unbal-

anced sympathetic nervous system may appear (see Dr.

Nakatsu Mistakes in Abortion and Prognosis' in OB-

STETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY, Sept. 1960, pp.

53-59).[FN13]

FN13. Ibidpp. 5, 6.

Abortion On Demand Has Not Been Made Socially De-

sirable By A Change In What People Believe Is Right.

An article on a Lou Harris poll of 4,000 Americans[FN14]

*17 states: And from what they answered, it

appears the 1970's woman is as straitlaced as ladies of

Victoria's day .... 65% of the women interviewed think

premarital sex is immoral. More astounding, 54% of the

men think so, too.

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FN14. Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1971, Part

IV, p. 23.

Also shot down as socially unacceptable: trial mar-

riages (77% of the women oppose and 69% of the men)

and bearing children out of wedlock (85% of the wo-

men, 82% of the men oppose). In fact, 89% of the wo-

men and 87% of the men think society would fall apart

without the institution of marriage.

Permissive Abortion Laws Are Unlikely To Reduce The

Numbers Of Battered Children.

... Dr. Edward Lenoski, Professor of Pediatrics at the

University of Southern California, did a four-anda half

year study of 400 battered children. He determined that

90% of the battered children in his study were planned

pregnancies. Ninety per cent is far above average for

planned pregnancies. Most of our readers undoubtably

deeply cherish and love the children that they have been

given. How many of you, however, actually planned the

conception of 90% of them? We could apparently kill

all unwanted babies in the early stages of pregnancy,

but still not significantly reduce the numbers of battered

children.

Dr. Lenoski has also determined that since the advent

of the contraceptive pill (which has certainly reduced

unwanted pregnancies), child beating is up threefold.[FN15]

FN15. Handbook On Abortion, Dr. & Mrs. J.

C. Willke, Hiltz Publishing Co., 1971, Cincin-

nati, p. 49.

*18 Deaths From Pregnancy Are Not Sufficient Reason

To Forbid Abortion Limitation Laws.

United States Vital Statistics indicate a death rate per

pregnancy caused by deliveries and complications of

pregnancy, childbirth and the pur perium of 28 per hun-

dred thousand in 1967. Some mothers, however, have

less than adequate medical care during pregnancy. The

true risk of pregnancy, given mediocre medical care, is

probably closer to 10 deaths per hundred thousand

births. United States Vital Statistics indicate that the

death rate per hundred thousand live births among white

New England women during 1965-67 was 10.8 per hun-

dred thousand live births. The death rate among women

receiving inadequate medical care is probably 5 to 10

times as high or perhaps even higher, as can be seen by

the nationwide non-white death rate of 69.5 per hundred

thousand live births in 1967. Those white women in

New England who did not receive adequate medical

care probably had a death rate far higher than 10 per

hundred thousand live births, although no such statistics

are available in the United States Vital Statistics. Ac-

cordingly, the death rate per hundred thousand live

births for women receiving adequate medical care was

probably less than 10 per hundred thousand live births

in the period 196567. In addition, the long term trend in

death rates from pregnancy since the 1920's has been a

reduction by more than 50% in the death rate from preg-nancy each 10 years. There is some evidence that the

long term trend is slowing down, but if it holds, the

death rate for women receiving adequate medical care

in the years 1973-75 will be about 5 per 100,000 live

births.

*19 In comparing the death rates caused by abortion

and pregnancy, it should be noted that in the case of

legal abortions, the woman is generally given what is

considered to be adequate medical care. Accordingly,

no improvement in medical care based on today's know-

ledge is likely to significantly reduce the death ratefrom abortion.

While United States Vital Statistics list nearly 1,000

deaths from pregnancy and related causes in 1967 and

1968, with only 130 deaths from abortion in 1968 and

160 in 1967, abortion is not thereby shown to be safer.

The pregnancy death quantities are deceivingly high be-

cause all abortion deaths are included in maternal mor-

tality figures, as well as a number of women who die

during or after pregnancy of kidney disease, high blood

pressure, and stroke conditions that might have claimed

them whether they were pregnant or not. In addition, the

risk from one pregnancy is spread over about 12

months. If aborted, the woman may become pregnant

again soon, as indicated by the following table by

KOYA, MURAMATSU, Bulletin of the Institute of

Public Health, (Japan) IV, No. 1-2, Sept. 1954, for wo-

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men not using contraceptives.

Months Percentage Pregnant

After abortion After childbirth3 19.2% (448) 0.0% (354)

6 32.8% 2.5%

9 43.5% 8.5%

12 50.0% 16.9%

15 60.0% 26.3%

*20 The Woman's Health Is Not A Justification For

Abortion.

The experience of nearly every area where comprehens-

ive statistics have been kept indicates that abortion isfar more likely to cause death, emotional harm, mental

harm, and physical harm to the woman than continu-

ation of the pregnancy.[FN16]

Willke lists Sweden's

abortion death rate at 40 per hundred thousand, Eng-

land's at 75 per hundred thousand, and points out that

Maryland's initial rate the first year was-77 per hundred

thousand and New York's is low because of the women

who go home to die. They also point out why the low

abortion death rates from Communist nations are

worse than useless(p. 64).

FN16. Ibidpp. 37-51, 62-73.

The reasons why abortion causes mental harm to the

mother have been stated by Conrad W. Baars, M.D.[FN17]

, who stated that a woman who is pregnant and

has an abortion is going to be deprived of the most im-

portant psychological help, namely, the love of her

child; they frequently think it will help, but it is actually

pushing them back into loneliness; the essence of love

is the affirmation of another, nothing is less affirming

than the denial of the child by abortion which kills an-

other human; the strong disaffirming of another, who is

closer to her at that time than anyone else, can havestrong adverse effects.

FN17. Love and Curing The Neurotic, Ar-

lington House, 1971.

Hilgers has stated:[FN18]

In Colorado, 71.5% of all

abortions are being done for psychiatric reasons. The

*21 similar figures for California (1969) and Oregon are

90% and 97% respectively. (Note: In 1970 in Califor-

nia the rate went to 98%. See infra.) Hilgers continues:

FN18. Induced Abortion: A Documented Re-port, T. W. Hilgers, M.D., P. N. Shearin, M.D.

Presented to Minnesota State Legislature, Janu-

ary 1971. pp.16, 17.

One would get the impression that mental illness in the

pregnant woman is extremely common and very serious

when present. However, in fact, in all of these states,

the mental helath clause has distinctly been abused.

This abuse, Doctor Cavanaugh says, has led to a decline

in the quality of patient care and a gross dishonesty in

medical practice-particularly psychiatry. We must,

therefore, look carefully at the psychiatric problems as-

sociated with pregnancy.

Noyes and Kolbe's textbook of psychiatry states that

experience does not show that pregnancy and the birth

of the child influence adversely the course of schizo-

phrenia, manic depressive illness or the majority of psy-

choneuroses. On the other hand, those psychoses which

are initiated by pregnancy rarely persist. Patients tend to

recover after a comparatively short period of time and

in some cases may recover spontaneously before full

term is reached. Women who show permanent impair-

ment of mentality following childbirth belong to the

class of potentially psychotic for whom pregnancy is

merely an ancillary factor in the pathogenesis of the

psychosis. In such women, an induced abortion cannot

be curative and it may have unresolved conflicts with

guilt and added depression which is more harmful than

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the continuation of the pregnancy-(see section on com-

plications-psychiatric sequelae).

There is evidence to suggest that serious mental dis-

orders arise following abortion more often in women

with real psychiatric problems and that paradoxically,

the very *22 women for whom legal abortion may seem

justifiable are also the ones for whom the risk is highest

for post-abortion psychic insufficiency.

It should be pointed out that suicide in the pregnant

woman is extremely rare. In fact, it is about 1/6th the

rate seen in nonpregnant women of the same age. Fur-

thermore, as Asche pointed out, it is virtually im-

possible to ascertain accurately whether a woman is sui-

cidal. In the State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Maternal

Mortality Committee, reported only 14 suicides associ-

ated with pregnancy in well over 1.5 million live births

between 1950-1966. (The Minnesota Maternal Mortality

Committee studies in detail all deaths in women which

occur during pregnancy or within a period 90 days fol-

lowing delivery). Ten of these 14 had delivered before

the suicide, and all 14 were married. In retrospect, these

deaths probably could have been prevented if adequate

psychiatric care had been obtained and utilized. The ex-

planation of why so few pregnant women commit sui-

cide appears to be that women-including the unwed-re-

ceive a good deal more attention from society whenpregnant than when not pregnant. Also, there may be

certain physiologic and instinctive factors which mani-

fest themselves in greater maternal protectiveness.

Eminent psychiatrists from throughout the world agree

that, if all the evidence is taken into careful considera-

tion, few neurotic or psychotic women are ever be-

nefited by termination of pregnancy and that the few

that would be are extremely difficult to select.

When abortion is substituted for adequate psychiatric

care (and there is much evidence to suggest that this ishappening), then there is a distinct danger of minimiz-

ing established *23 psychotherapeutic principles. Un-

fortunately, it is the distressed woman who ultimately

faces the full impact of this minimization. She is the one

who cries out for help and she is also the one who is

turned away.

Even assuming arguendo that abortion helped some

types of illness, and abortions for mental health reasons

were limited to the mentally ill instead of being used as

a vehicle for abortion on demand, difficulties might

arise from establishing the principle that the life of one

person should depend on the judgment of another per-

son who is mentally ill, because that person is mentally

ill.

A Negative Feeling In Early Pregnancy Is Common But

Temporary.

Hilgers states:[FN19]

Based on the knowledge that the

majority of women who have a negative or ambivalent

reaction to their pregnancy during its early stages do, in

fact, as the pregnancy advances, develop a more posit-

ive acceptance of the pregnancy, supportive care of the

pregnant woman becomes all the more reasonable.

Much has been said of the unwanted child, yet the ma-

jority of women who expressed ambivalent or rejecting

attitudes toward the pregnancy in the early months,

now, in the third trimester, express positive, or at least

more accepting, attitudes toward the baby.

FN19. Ibid. pp. 36, 37.

Indeed this phenomenon of early rejection and later ac-

ceptance has been spelled out by Gardiner in Williams

Obstetrics, 13th edition, 1966:

*24 'The initial acceptance and adaptation to the preg-

nancy by the particular patient will depend upon the im-

plications regarding future responsibilities and future

personal and intrapersonal relationships engendered by

the pregnancy. At that stage (the first three months), the

pregnancy exists only as an abstraction and can be ac-

cepted or rejected depending upon the character and

personal significance of future implications....

So real and life-threatening are these emotional reac-

tions to these women that they not only reject the exist-

ence of the pregnancy before they, themselves, are en-gulfed and destroyed. Under the spell of this distorted

thinking and reasoning, the medical hazards of instru-

mental abortion fade into insignificance.

It is not unusual (however) for women who will be-

come good mothers, or those who have already demon-

strated their excellent maternal qualities with their older

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children, to react initially to the diagnosis of pregnancy

with resentment, frustration and depression, only to ex-

press strong, genuine, positive feelings of acceptance as

the pregnancy advances and fetal movements appear.

Considering this, it seems fair to ask what happens if

their fearful request for abortion is denied. Hook repor-

ted that of 249 women refused an abortion in Sweden,

86% gave birth, 11% had induced abortions (22% had

threatened to do so), and 3% had spontaneous abortion.

Of this group *25 12% had threatened suicide but no

suicides or suicide attempts occurred. Kolstad reported

that of 113 women refused abortion in Norway and who

carried the pregnancy to term 84% were glad that the

pregnancy was not terminated, 9% were uncertain as to

their feelings, and only 7% were discontented. Further-more, Murdock showed that by supporting pregnant wo-

men throughout their pregnancy, the pressures for abor-

tion were significantly decreased. He suggested that the

pregnancy carried to term may have been a positive

factor in the mother's return to normalcy.

Medical Complications Of Induced Abortion.

Hilgers states:[FN20]

The American College of Ob-

stetricians - - Gynecologists has stated: The inherent

risk of a therapeutic abortion are serious and may be

life-threatening, this fact should be fully appreciated byboth the medical profession and the public. In nations

where abortion may be obtained on demand, a consider-

able morbidity and mortality has been reported.

FN20. Ibid. pp. 23-31.

This is suppored by a statement issued by the Royal

College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists (Great Britain):

Those without specialists' knowledge, and these in-

clude members of the medical profession, are influ-

enced in adopting what they regard as a humanitarian

attitude to the induction of abortion by a failure to ap-

preciate what is involved. They tend to regard induction

of abortion as a trivial operation, free from risk. In fact,

even to the expert working in the best conditions, the re-

moval of an early pregnancy after *26 dilating the cer-

vic can be difficult, and is not infrequently accompanied

by serious complications. This is particularly true in the

case of the woman pregnant for the first time. For wo-

men who have a serious medical indication for termina-

tion of pregnancy, induction of abortion is extremely

hazardous and its risks need to be weighed carefully

against those involved in leaving the pregnancy undis-

turbed. Even for the relatively healthy woman, however,

the dangers are considerable.

Under the heading Mortality Rates Hilgers states:

Obviously, the worst complication resulting from a

legal abortion is death itself. In Table I you will see lis-

ted the legal abortion mortality rates for several coun-

tries which have eliminated the legal safeguards to

abortion. Included also are the 10 maternal deaths

which New York City had during the first 3 months fol-

lowing enactment of their law.

In the majority of countries, including New York State,

a woman is more likely to die from legal abortion than

she is if she were to carry the pregnancy to term (this is

in contradiction to what proponents of abortion wouldhave us believe). It must be emphasized that these fig-

ures are for legal abortion, done by licensed physicians

in fully accredited medical facilities. The tragedy is that

these deaths are preventable simply by having a strong

abortion law. In Minnesota, this tragedy is compounded

by the fact that there is probably no safer place in the

world for a woman to have her baby.

Table I, referred to above, is as follows:

Legal Abortion Mortality Rates

Country/State Deaths/100,000 legal abortions

Finland 66

Denmark 41.4

New York City greater than 40

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Sweden 39.2

Great Britain 30

Yugoslavia 10

Japan 7

Hungary 7

Czechoslovakia 2.5

*27 (Those countries with extremely low death rates

have laws which generally do not allow abortion after 3

months and, as such, are not comparable to present

changes in United States abortion laws.)

Addendum: Minnesota Maternal Mortality

Rate = 14/100,000 live births.

(Note: Willke criticizes the accuracy of the low rates inCommunist nations and points out maternal mortality

rate includes abortion deaths as well as others which

may have happened if the woman were not pregnant,

while abortion excludes those who die elsewhere and

some of those whose death is caused only indirectly by

abortion, such as by hepatitis.)

Hilgers continues: There are a whole host of major

complications resulting from legal abortion which at

their *28 worst cause death, but much more frequently

result in either temporary or permanent damage to the

woman or her offspring. Again, using the world's med-

ical literature as documentation, these complications

will be presented in some detail. They will, however, be

limited to the 4 main methods through which abortion is

procured in the United States: dilation and curettage,

suction curettage, saline instillation and hysterotomy.

Infection-Pelvic infection is a common sequel to legal

abortion. While the incidence varies slightly from coun-

try to country, consensus reveals an astonishing high

rate. (See Table II).

Table II, referred to above, is as follows:

The Incidence Of Pelvic

Infection Following Leg-

al Abortion

EARLY INFECTION LATE INFECTION METHOD COUNTRY

5.0 - D&C Germany

5.0 15.0 D&C Czechoslovakia

4.9 - D&C Czechoslovakia

4.0-5.0 12-15 D&C Czechoslovakia

5.0 - D&C Rumania

7.0 - D&C USSR

2.6 9.7 D&C Poland

28.2 D&C USSR

12.0 D&C USSR

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2.0 - D&C Bulgaria

1.6-2.3 - Saline Sweden

15.4 - Saline Great Britain

10.4 - Saline Japan

1.0 - Saline Denmark

2.0 - Suction Great Britain

3.9 - Suction Czechoslovakia

5.0 - Suction Germany

10.0 - All methods Great Britain

*29 Hilgers further states: The incidence appears to be

highest 2 - 3 weeks after the abortion at a time when the

patient has been lost to follow-up. There is also good

evidence to suggest that the young woman pregnant forthe first time stands a much greater risk of infection

(15.8%).

These infections are the direct result of the instrument-

ation involved in the abortive technique and are mani-

fest as salpingitis (infection in the fallopian tubes) or

endometritis (infection in the lining of the womb).

When out of control, these infections can cause septic

shock with rapid death or pelvic thrombophlebitis

(inflammation and blood clot formation in the pelvic

veins) with sudden death by pulmonary embolus (blood

clot from the pelvic veins which dislodges and is carried

to the lungs). These infections can also result in sterility

because they scar the tubes to a point where they no

longer function properly.

Hemorrhage-Major hemorrhage is another complica-

tion and can result in death by exsanguination. Again,

the incidence is much too high to be acceptable from a

medical standpoint. (See Table III).

Table III, referred to above, is as follows:

Incidence Of Major HemorrhageFollowing Legal Abortion

% MAJOR HEMORRHAGE METHOD COUNTRY/STATE

2.3 D&C Germany

5.0 D&C Czechoslovakia

8.6 D&C Rumania

2.6 D&C Poland

14.2 D&C USSR

5.9 D&C Bulgaria

21.0 All methods Great Britain

8.0 All methods Colorado

3-7.8 Saline Sweden

15.4 Saline Great Britain

3.6 Saline Japan

2.0 Saline Denmark

3.8 Suction Great Britain

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3.1 Hungary

2.0 Czechoslovakia

1.0 Czechoslovakia

11-12(5 year follow-up) USSR

2.2 USSR

6.0 USSR

5.2 Poland

Under the heading Subsequent Pathologic Pregnan-

cies Hilgers states: Subsequent pregnancies are more

often pathologic following abortion and this without

question represents one of the most serious complica-

tions of induced abortion. The prematurity rate in

Czechoslovakia prior to abortion on demand was 5%

(not much different from the United States). Several

years later, this had increased to 14%. Hungary and Ja-

pan have reported similar trends. The incidence in any

one individual seems to be well correlated with the

number of abortions a woman has; Hungarian studies

reveal that the likelihood of premature delivery after

one abortion increased to 12%; after two abortions-

15%; and after three abortions -24%. It should be poin-

ted out that prematurity is the leading cause of infant

death in the United States, and one of the major contrib-

utors to mental and motor retardation. The authors are

not aware of any studies which have been done regard-ing psychiatric sequelae following premature *33 birth

as the result of a previous abortion, but would suspect a

high correlation.

A number of countries have reported a significant in-

crease in incidence of ectopic pregnancies (pregnancies

which occur someplace other than in the womb). In fact,

Japan sees ectopic pregnancies in 3.9% of women,

which is 4 to 8 times more frequent than in the United

States. Ectopic pregnancies are not infrequently life

threatening because of rupture and hemorrhage. Again,

tubal malfunction secondary to infection seems to be theprime cause.

Spontaneous abortions and fetal death before the onset

of labor are reported to be significantly more common

following legal abortion in those countries with weak

abortion laws. Complicated labors (prolonged labor,

placenta previa, adherent placenta) and excessive bleed-

ing at the time of delivery are also more common when

compared to women who have not had legal abortions.

These all result in increased obstetrical intervention.

Transplacental Hemorrhage-It has long been known

that a woman who is Rh-negative is very susceptible to

a special kind of problem if her consort is Rh-postive.

Any given pregnancy may be a stimulus for the mother

to develop antibodies against the baby's red blood cells

(i.e., she becomes sensitized) so that in a subsequent

pregnancy, these antibodies may destroy the baby's red

blood cells resulting in an anemia in the unborn child

which may be life-threatening. This sensitization occurs

through the leakage of the baby's red blood cells into

the mother's circulation (transplacental hemorrhage)

usually at the time of delivery. Therefore, first born

children are rarely affected. In spontaneous abortion,

this sensitization rarely occurs. *34 However, with allmethods of induced abortion sensitization has been re-

ported to occur in 3 - 10% of Rh-negative women. Re-

cent advances have allowed us to prevent this complica-

tion in 100% of women treated. However, because tests

on the fetus cannot be performed to rule out sensitiza-

tion of the mother, a number of women, who have not

become sensitized, will be needlessly subjected to this

expensive treatment.

Sterility-There are a number of complications which

do not appear immediately following the abortion. Po-

land has reported that 6.9% of women were sterile 4 to5 years after abortion. Japan has reported 9.7% with

subsequent sterility on 3 year follow-up and other coun-

tries have had similar experience. This appears to be the

result of inadequate regeneration of the lining of the

womb following dilation and curettage and/or infection

as previously mentioned. There is evidence also to sug-

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membranes from the uterus through the cervix and va-

gina after the cervix has been dilated with an instru-

ment; (2) stimulation of premature labor and delivery,

with or without ensuring the death of the fetus before

delivery; and (3) hysterotomy, or direct surgical in-

cision into the uterus with removal of the fetus, mem-

branes and placenta.

Presently available tests for pregnancy are usually un-

reliable until at least two weeks after a missed menstru-

al period, meaning that the human embryo is at least

four weeks old when its existence is first discernible.

One factor which frequently tends to delay the diagnosis

of pregnancy is the slight vaginal bleeding often seen in

early pregnancy and which the pregnant woman may

mistake for a menstrual period. Another such delayingfactor is the more or less constitutional menstrual irreg-

ularity which may lead a woman to accept the absence

of menstrual period for a month or more.

During the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, corres-

ponding in practice, therefore, to an embryonic-fetal age

of four to twelve weeks, abortionists rely upon dilation

of the cervix and sharp curettage alone or suction cur-

ettage, which is usually followed by sharp curettage to

ensure that no remnants of the fetus are left behind. In

this procedure the woman is placed on her back on the

operating table, her knees apart and hips and knees bent.She may be given general anesthesia, local anesthesia-

by injections alongside the cervix (usually the only

pain-sensitive structure involved) *38 or no anesthesia,

depending on the size of the uterus and cervix, the ease

with which it dilates, the age of the fetus (and therefore

its size), and the preference of the operating doctor.

The vagina is then cleansed with an antiseptic solution.

A toothed instrument is clamped onto the cervix which

is pulled toward the operator. The canal through the cer-

vix is found with a long thin instrument called a sound,

and then widened, usually by passing a series of pro-gressively larger probes or dilators through it until it

can admit the sharp curved curette or the tubular suction

curette. Curettes for abortion range in size from 3.5 mm

to 15 mm or about 1/8 inch to 5/8 inch, the larger sizes

being necessary to tear through and scrape or suck out

the tissues of the fetus, placenta, and membranes in the

later stages of this first twelve week period of gestation.

During the period from the fourth through the twelfth

week of pregnancy the fetus has grown from 1/5 inch to

3-1/2 inches, has differentiated its organ systems, has

arms and legs, has fingers and toes each provided with

nails. Centers for bony development have appeared and

begun to deposit bone in the skeleton which has been

cartilage up to now. It may be of interest to the reader to

read from the respected Williams Obstetrics, thirteenth

edition, 1966, page 192: A fetus born at this time may

make spontaneous movements if still within the amniot-

ic sac or if immersed in warm saline.

If sharp curettage has been done, the pieces of the fetus

with its membranes are placed on a sponge or in a pan

and sent to the pathologist for identification. In suctioncurette equipment there is usually a glass jar *39 placed

in line with the suction apparatus so that fetal parts will

be trapped and not interfere with the machinery. In this

case the glass bottle is simply unscrewed and sent to the

pathologist.

Stimulation of premature delivery, by a variety of

means, is the method of choice by those who abort wo-

men pregnant for more than twelve weeks. Dilation and

curettage is not used after about twelve weeks' gestation

because it become prohibitively dangerous due to the

larger size of the fetus and uterus, each now with largerblood vessels. The uterine wall is becoming progress-

ively softer and thinner, the more likely to be perforated

by a hard instrument. The fetal skeleton is becoming

harder and the fetus more difficult to remove.

Stimulation of effective uterine contractions, essen-

tially the stimulation of premature labor, may be accom-

plished by injecting a variety of substances into the

uterine cavity, either inside of or outside of the fetal

membranes themselves. Most commonly used are con-

centrated salt (abandoned by the Japanese as unsafe

after 1950), sugar, and formaldehyde solutions, irritantsoaps, pastes, and rivanol (a mild antiseptic widely used

in Japan).

Schiffer has reported on the technic used in 28 abor-

tions ranging from 14 to 24 weeks' gestation. The wo-

man's abdomen was washed and prepared with antisep-

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tic. Then, under local anesthesia a long needle was in-

serted through the abdominal wall, through the uterine

wall and into the amniotic sac surrounding the fetus. As

much of the fluid in this sac as possible was withdrawn

through the needle, and, when possible, an equal

amount of sterile salt solution was then injected and the

needle withdrawn. Labor pains *40 began, on the aver-

age, 27.5 hours after injection and the fetus was de-

livered an average of 11 hours later. Some of Schiffer's

patients received intravenous oxytocin, a drug used to

strengthen uterine contractions, during the abortion. It is

noteworthy that the reason that these substances stimu-

late labor is not yet known.

During the period from twelve to twenty-four weeks'

gestation the fetus grows to be about 13 inches long,weighing 1-1/4 pounds, with hair on its head, wrinkles

on its skin and obvious sex organs. Survival of this

24-week size baby, though rare, has been reported.

The Japanese often use a mechanical means to stimu-

late the pregnant uterus to start labor in performing

midtrimester abortions. Manabe reported on the use of

the metreurynter-a balloon on the end of a flexible tube

which is placed through the cervix between the uterine

wall and the fetal membranes. The balloon is then filled

with 3 to 10 ounces of sterile saline, causing it to be-

come lodged in the uterus. The flexible tube is thenhooked up to a pulley system between the woman's legs

and a weight of 1 to 2 pounds is attached, exerting

downward traction on the cervix. The Japanese feel that

this force both dilates the cervix and stimulates the uter-

us to contract in an effort to expel the balloon and with

it the unborn child. The average time from metreurynter

inflation to delivery of the fetus-usually alive-varies

widely but one report gives this figure to be about 26

hours.

Manabe states that the ultimate aim in abortion is al-

ways the most physiologic delivery of the fetus, to en-sure the safety of the mother. He has found that the

metreurynter method or the intrauterine instillation of

0.1% rivanol offer many advantages over other methods

for mid-trimester abortions*41 because they result in a

far more physiologic labor, evidenced by the fact that

the fetus is normally delivered alive. He points out that

most fetuses, however, die shortly after delivery if fetal

age is less than the middle of the seventh month. Sur-

vival of the fetus even several hours after delivery

would pose serious moral and ethical dilemmas.

The least frequently used means of producing an abor-

tion is the hysterotomy, which entails incision into the

uterus and removal of the fetus. This method is used in

pregnancies generally over 14 weeks. It is a major sur-

gical procedure usually done through an abdominal in-

cision. Up to about 16 weeks of pregnancy, it may be

done through the vagina. After 16 weeks it is thought to

be unsafe vaginally.

Even during early abortions, pieces come out which are

obviously parts of what had been a small baby. This

fact, and the fact that the purpose of abortion is to kill a

human being, have led Dr. Andrew Ivy (Chicago

Tribune, May 2, 1970) to point out that he was the ex-

pert medical witness at the Nurnberg War Crime Trials;

that we are, in many ways, near the stage of respect for

human life that Germany was in the mid 1930's; and

that abortion may lead us to repeat the German crimes.

Dr. Leo Alexander, in the July 14, 1969 New England

Journal of Medicine, also pointed out the importance inNazi Germany of the first small wedged-in lever

through the right to life and how this made the follow-

ing steps logical.

*42 Permissive Abortion Laws Do Not Decrease The

Criminal Abortion Rate.

As Table VI, Hilgers has set forth the following inform-

ation:[FN22]

FN22. Ibid. pp. 32, 33.

COUNTRY/STATE EFFECT OF CRIMINAL ABORTION RATE

German Democratic Republic Increased with liberal abortion law

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Decreased with strict abortion law

Japan No effect

Great Britain No effect

Yugoslavia Increased

Hungary No effect

Czechoslovakia No effect

Switzerland No effect

Bulgaria No effect

Poland No effect

Colorado No effect

USSR No effect

(Note: Similar results have been found for Sweden

[FN23], Denmark[FN24], and California at least in theinitial years

[FN25].)

FN23. Rice, The Vanishing Right To Live, p.

39.

FN24. Shaw, Abortion On Trial, p. 144.

FN25. Dr. Lewis Saylor, State Director of Pub-

lic Health.

*43 Hilgers continues: Not one country has seen a de-

crease in the criminal abortion rate as the result of ad-

opting weak legislation. On the other hand, some coun-

tries have actually seen an increase. The German Demo-

cratic Republic is a good example. They saw an in-

crease in the criminal abortion rate during the years

1947-1950, a time when they had a relaxed abortion

law. In 1950, they adopted a law allowing abortion only

for strict medical indications. This was followed by a

precipitous fall in the number of criminal abortions.

There are a number of reasons given for this paradox.

It seems that the law plays an inherent educative role in

forming the social ethic of any given society. When thissocial ethic is changed by eliminating all the legal safe-

guards to abortion, a whole new class of women, de-

pendent upon that social ethic, find themselves asking

for abortion. It also seems clear that women desire pri-

vacy when they are aborted and the legal framework, no

matter how loose, does not allow for this.

Willke states:[FN26]

The prestigious British Medical

Journal Lancet, in 1968 in a report entitled On the Out-

come of Pregnancy When Legal Abortion is Readily

Available stated: Sweden's law, in its present form,

has not sufficed to subdue criminal abortion.

FN26. Handbook On Abortion, Dr. & Mrs.

J.C. Willke, Hiltz Publishing Co., 1971, pp.

75-78.

Dr. Christopher Tietze, certainly one of the world's

outstanding biostaticians, and a man who incidentally

favors legalization of abortion, has written in his report,

Abortion In Europe: One of the major*44 goals of

the liberalization laws in Scandinavia was to reduce il-

legal abortion. This was not realized. Rather, as we

know from a variety of sources, both criminal and total

abortions increased. It survives because of the relative

lack of privacy of the official procedures. (U.S. Journal

of Public Health, Nov. 1967.)

Was this also true of Japan? Even more so in Japan. Of

the 50,000,000 unborn children that have been killed by

abortions in the last 22 years in Japan, and where abor-

tions are very inexpensive, a full one-third of the pro-

cedures continue to be done illegally.

What of the United States? What has been our experi-

ence to date? There hasn't been too much published be-

cause legalized abortion laws are new in our country.

Dr. W. Droegemuller in the American Journal of Ob-

stetrics and Gynecology, March 1969, reporting on

One Year Experience With a Liberalized Abortion

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Law, says that, This has not reduced the admissions

for septic abortions. Sepsis (infection) is one of the

most common complications of criminal abortion, and

the number of septic cases admitted post-abortive to a

hospital is a fairly good indication in a community of

the number of criminal abortions being-done.

But perhaps their laws are too restrictive. What if abor-

tion is completely available at the request of the moth-

er? Wouldn't that eliminate illegal abortion? It didn't in

Japan. It hasn't in England nor in any other major coun-

try to date.

What is the reason why illegal abortions are not re-

duced? Here are some examples:

1) Suppose you are the wife of a man who wants anoth-

er child. You do not. You become pregnant.*45 If you

go through official procedures in a hospital, your hus-

band may find out. You don't want him to know, but

you want to get rid of this baby, so you have an illegal

abortion.

2) Suppose you are a married woman, and you become

pregnant by another man. Your husband has been away,

and he knows this would not be his child. Again, he

must never know that you've become pregnant, so you

have it done illegally.

3) Suppose you are a prominent citizen, and your teen-

age daughter becomes pregnant. You wish to avoidscandal. Hospital procedures are available to her. You

cannot, however, take the risk of disclosure. You have it

done in the privacy of an illegal situation.

4) Suppose you are poor. Perhaps your man has left

you. There is a long waiting list at the public hospital,

and much red tape you don't understand. You are frantic

to get rid of it. A friend tells you of someone who

will. You go there.

What of England? Hasn't the number of illegal abor-

tions dropped there? The most authoritative report on

this was published in the British Medical Journal, May1970, by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gyneco-

logy, and constituted a summary of the opinions of the

consultant obstetricians of England. It said:

The original protagonists for abortion law reform often

argued that a large proportion of*46 cases of spontan-

eous abortions hitherto treated in hospitals and nearly

all the associated deaths were the result of criminal in-

terference. Legal zation of abortion would, they postu-

lated, el iminate these. They brushed aside contrary ar-

guments and evidence. Our figures show * * * that des-

pite a sharp rise in the number of thera peutic (legal)

abortions from 1968 to 1969, there was not, unfortu-

nately, a significant change in the number of cases of

spontaneous abortion requiring admission to hospital.

The fact that legalization of abortion has not so far

materially reduced the numbers of spontaneous abor-

tions or of deaths from abortions of all kinds is not sur-

prising. It confirms the experience of most countries

and was forecast by the College's 1966 statement.

Incest And Rape Cause Few Pregnancies.

Willke states:[FN27] If a girl is raped or subjected to

incestuous intercourse and reports the fact promptly,

she is usually taken immediately for medical attention.

This consists of a douche, commonly a scraping of the

uterus, and at times doses of medication, one or all of

which, while done partially to prevent venereal disease,

will also almost invariably prevent her from getting

pregnant. If the rape victim would report her assault

promptly, there would be, for all practical purposes, no

pregnancies from rape....

FN27. Ibid. pp. 32-36.

*47 Are there any statistics to support the fact that

pregnancy is rare? There have been few good statistical

studies in this country. In Czechoslovakia, however, out

of 86,000 consecutive induced abortions, only twenty-

two were done for rape. This figures out to one in

4,000. At a recent obstetric meeting at a major midwest

hospital, a poll taken of those physicians present (who

had delivered over 19,000 babies) revealed that not one

had delivered a bona fide rape pregnancy....

Unquestionably, many would want her to destroy the

growing baby within her. But before making this de-

cision, remember that most of the trauma has already

occurred. She has been raped. That trauma will live

with her all of her life. Furthermore, this girl did not re-

port for help but kept this to herself. For several weeks

she thought of little else as the panic built up. Now she

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has finally asked for help, has shared her upset, and

should be in a supportive situation.

The utilitarian question from the mother's standpoint is

whether or not it would now be better to kill the devel-

oping baby within her. But will abortion now be best for

her, or will it bring her more harm yet? What has

happened and its damage has already occurred. She's

old enough to know and have an opinion as to whether

she carries a baby or a blob of protoplasm.

Will she be able to live comfortably with the memory

that she killed her developing baby? Or would she ulti-

mately be more mature and more at peace with herself if

she could remember that, even though she was unwill-

ingly pregnant, she nevertheless gave her child life and

a good home (perhaps through adoption).

*48 Even from only the mother's standpoint, the choice

is one which deserves the most serious deliberation, and

no answer is easy or automatically right.

And, finally,-isn't it a twisted logic that would kill an

innocent unborn baby for the crime of his father!

Abortion On Demand Does Not Fulfill The Require-

ments For A Good Law Dealing With A Complex So-

cial, Biological, Economic, And Moral Issue.

Congressman Lawrence Hogan has defined require-

ments of a good abortion law.[FN29]

FN29. Congressional Record, January 29,

1971.

First, it should reflect the best medical and scientific

judgment available. We deal with human life at its be-

ginning. If the physicians and scientists tell us-as they

do-that the fetus, at say, 15 weeks, is definitely a human

person, how can we kill that human person without

guilt?...

Second, a good law does not help solve one social

problem by creating others. Besides the problem of the

unborn, unwanted child, we have the problem of

backalley abortions and the problem of death or injury

to the aborting mother through improper surgical tech-

niques. The New York experience since last July indic-

ates that a so-called liberalized abortion bill does not

solve these: it creates an abortion mentality which

fosters thousands of unnecessary abortions and it ap-

pears there have been more deaths than before, rather

than fewer. We should not go down New York's road

until we have time to study *49 and see where that road

leads....

Third, a good law should harmonize the rights of all

interested parties. Here the proposed bill completely

overlooks the uncontroverted fact that the child in the

womb is not just a growth in someone's body, like ton-

sils or an appendix, but is a real human being who, in

my opinion, has the right to life.....

Fourth, a good law should not foster crimes or put

honest people into impossible crises of conscience. Un-

der similar laws in other states and in England, fre-

quently an intended abortion results in the birth of a liv-

ing child. Nurses are told to put him into a bucket and

toss him into the incinerator. Thus the public policy of

the given jurisdiction actually promotes what its laws

define as manslaughter-and requires conscientious hos-

pital personnel to witness or even help in the killing of a

living human being, contrary to all their training, in-

stincts, and moral convictions.

Fifth, a good law respects the common morality of a

pluralistic community. We are not talking about contra-

ception here; we are talking about killing ....

Even the pro-abortion California Medical Association (

supra) admits that the idea of killing is presently so-

cially abhorrent and that semantic gymnastics are re-

quired to rationalize abortion.[FN30]

FN30. California Medicine, September 1970,

pp. 67, 68.

*50 A High Abortion Rate Correlates With A High Sui-

cide Rate.

Both in European and non-European nations, those

countries having the largest numbers of abortions have

the highest numbers of suicides. Among the non-

European nations, Japan appears to have the largest

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number and rate of abortions. Ceylon appears to have

the highest average death rate from abortions of those

countries publishing rates.31 Among the approximately

40 non-European nations publishing suicide rates, Japan

and Ceylon have the highest two suicide rates.[FN31]

Statistics are not complete enough to draw further con-

clusions for non-European nations.

FN31. United Nations Demographic Yearbooks

1965-1969.

Among those European nations listing their suicide

rates,[FN31]

eight-Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark,

Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland and Sweden-have

relatively permissive abortion laws.[FN32]

FN31. United Nations Demographic Yearbooks

1965-1969.

FN32. Population Council, 245 Park Ave., New

York, N.Y. 10017.

The eight permissive abortion European nations have

suicide rates about 80% higher than the other European

nations. While suicide correlates very closely with abor-

tions in European nations, it correlates slightly or not at

all with climate, longitude, latitude, economic develop-

ment, mountains or Communism. (While the four Com-

munist nations have high suicide rates, all four are per-

missive abortion nations and their suicide rates are com-

parable to those of non-Communist permissive abortion

nations.)

*51 Here in the United States there is some basis for the

belief that a low value on life-caused in part by young

people believing that they themselves are unwanted, be-

cause of an abortion mentality creeping into society-is

increasing our suicide rate and our drug-use rate.[FN33]

FN33. Los Angeles Times, Part 4, p. 4, May

25, 1971.Permissive Abortion Laws Might Increase Venereal

Disease Damage.

1967 United States Vital Statistics[FN34]

indicate that

syphilis and related diseases kill far more Americans

annually than pregnancy and abortion combined. If a

permissive abortion law causes even a slight percentage

increase in venereal disease annually, it may cause far

more physical harm and misery than that presently

caused by the non-termination of unwanted pregnancies.

FN34. Vital Statistics of the United States,

1967, Vol. II, Mortality Part A, pp. 1-7.

Dr. Geoffrey Simmons, an originator of the campaign

sponsored by the Los Angeles County Health Depart-

ment, Citizens for Eradication of Syphilis and Council

of Free Clinics, has said[FN35]

that even with the most

effective preventive means, the condom, there is a ten

per cent chance of infection from relations with partners

having syphilis, but that most people use birth preven-

tion means such as the pill which are not effective in

preventing VD. About half a million men and women

have syphilis in the United States and don't know it....

The tragedy is that VD already is out of control and in-

dications*52 are that the current epidemic will get

worse.... [D]rugs now being used are beginning to fail.

He predicts that by 1975 instead of 2 million venereal

disease cases in the country there will be 5 million,

barring some scientific discovery or strong preventive

measures assumed on an individual basis by the popula-

tion at large.... More than 100,000 persons who have

syphilis will either have severe heart disease, be insane,

paralyzed or dead from this disease.

FN35. Los Angeles Times, Part 4, p. 4, April 1,

1971.

The Abortionists Have Interpreted United States v.

Vuitch, 91 S.Ct. 1294, 28 L.Ed.2d 601 (1971), As Per-

mitting Abortion On Demand.[FN36]

FN36. Life In America, May 1971, p. 2.

A close reading of the Washington, D. C. newspapers or

contact with the abortion referral agencies and abortion-

ists in Washington, D. C., since the Vuitch decision was

made public in April 1971, should be sufficient to con-

vince the Court that the practical effect of the Court's

Vuitch decision has been abortion on demand, which

has stripped the unborn of all protection in Washington,

D. C.

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http://www.westlaw.com/Find/Default.wl?rs=dfa1.0&vr=2.0&DB=708&FindType=Y&SerialNum=1971127053http://www.westlaw.com/Find/Default.wl?rs=dfa1.0&vr=2.0&DB=708&FindType=Y&SerialNum=1971127053http://www.westlaw.com/Find/Default.wl?rs=dfa1.0&vr=2.0&DB=708&FindType=Y&SerialNum=1971127053http://www.westlaw.com/Find/Default.wl?rs=dfa1.0&vr=2.0&DB=708&FindType=Y&SerialNum=1971127053http://www.westlaw.com/Find/Default.wl?rs=dfa1.0&vr=2.0&DB=708&FindType=Y&SerialNum=1971127053http://www.westlaw.com/Find/Default.wl?rs=dfa1.0&vr=2.0&DB=708&FindType=Y&SerialNum=1971127053

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Roe v. Wade

1970 WL 122834 (U.S. ) (Appellate Brief )

END OF DOCUMENT

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